/lit/ - Literature

>>12256171
Here are some notes from the Blessed Henry Suso on temporal suffering on Earth from his little book of Wisdom.

>Suffering is a safeguard against grievous faults:
>Makes a man know himself, rely on himself and have faith in his neighbor
>keeps the soul humble and teaches patience
>is the guardian of purity and confers the crown of eternal salvation
>purges the soul as fire purges iron and purifies gold
>chastises the body which at any rate must rot away but it nourishes the noble soul which shall endure forever

God gives these afflictions to the one's he loves the most. Look at people who have not suffered. They hollow, ungrateful and self-centered. This is why Christ says it's harder for a rich man to go to heaven than a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle. It is not a condemnation of his material wealth but his self-centered, comfortable life. The comfortable life of ease caused him to fill his soul with possessions instead of what is important to God. Life is more than meat, life is more than comfort.

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>>12151898
>seeking approval and adoration for others
>willing anything at all
Let your soul therefore turn always:
"Not to what is most easy, but to what is hardest; Not to what tastes best, but to what is most distasteful;
"Not to what most pleases, but to what disgusts;
"Not to matter of consolation, but to matter for desolation rather;
"Not to rest, but to labor;
"Not to desire the more, but the less;
"Not to aspire to what is highest and most precious, but to what is lowest and most contemptible;
"Not to will anything, but to will nothing;
"Not to seek the best in everything, but to seek the worst, so that you may enter for the love of Christ into a complete destitution, a perfect poverty of spirit, and an absolute renunciation of everything in this world." --- Saint John of the Cross